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EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS 

IN SAN FERNANDO 

DE BEXAR. 



I. J. cox. 



Reprinted from the Quaetebly of The Texas Histobical Association. 
Vol. VI, No. 1, July, 1902. 



s 






EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS IN SAN FERNANDO DE 

BEXAR. 

I. J. cox. 1 

To one only superficially acquainted with the history of Texas, 
under the Spanish and Mexican regimes, the above title may be the 
occasion for two surprises: first, that the authorities or citizens of 
the villa of San Fernando ever made commendable efforts in any 
direction whatever; and second, that any effort that they should 
chance to make should be directed towards education. Yet both 
of these facts are true; and, when due consideration is given to the 
aggregate of such efforts, the net result is not inconsiderable, nor 
the effect upon our present system lightly to be ignored. 

By my title I am restrained from any consideration of the edu- 
cational system of other portions of New Spain ; in which, however, 
not a single public free school was established, prior to 1793 2 
I must also pass over the work of the Franciscan missionaries, 
which, though churchly in character, was creditable in result. The 
field is restricted to the villa of San Fernando, which later devel- 
oped into the "city" of San Fernando de Bexar, more familiar to 
us by its modern name of San Antonio. The subject naturally 
divides itself into two principal chapters : Education under Spanish 
Rule, and Education under Mexican Rule. 



EDUCATION" UNDER SPANISH RULE. 

Matters strictly educational did not early occupy the attention 
of the officials of San Fernando. Indeed, this is not surprising, 
for the members of the cabildo (town council) were far from 
being men of keen intellectual perception, while the generality of 

^r. Cox is holder of the C. C. Harrison fellowship in American history 
at the University of Pennsylvania for the year 1902-1903. — Editor Quar- 
terly. 

2 Revilla G-igedo, Instruction Reservada, par. 335. 

1— C. 



28 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

the people were all too content with gaining an existence with the 
least possible effort, to demand anything better. The first real 
sign of educational awakening is contained in a petition, presented 
to the cabildo, in 1789, by Don Jose Francisco de la Mata. 1 In 
this paper he says that, led by pity for the ignorance of the youth 
of the villa, he had, a few years before, opened a sort of school for 
them, in which they might learn something of the proprieties of 
the church service, of parental control, and of public duties. The 
object of his petition is to secure the good will of the members of 
the cabildo, the cooperation of the village curate, the modest little 
stipend of twelve reales per pupil, and lastly, but by no means of 
least import, the formal authorization of his school by the proper 
authorities, in order to prevent the undue interference of parents 
with his educational methods. 

The lot of this pedagogue could not have been a very happy one, 
for he tells the members of the cabildo that the parents of those 
to whom he had administered mild punishments were accustomed 
to threaten him in a most insulting manner in the very presence 
of their children. They would also, upon the least provocation, 
remove the latter from his school, a policy disastrous alike to par- 
ents, children, and the community at large. Perhaps these trials 
could have been endured with greater equanimity had his salary 
been in any way commensurate with his labors; but he had made 
his tuition fees purposely small in order to attract to his teaching 
all the children of the community. 2 

As Don Jose Francisco asked for little more than the good will 
of the cabildo and the forwarding of his petition to the governor 
for his necessary approval, his request was readily received by the 
members and forwarded according to his wish. The governor 
granted what the petitioner desired, but as the document abruptly 
ends at this point, we can learn no more of Don Jose's pioneer 
educational experiment. From another document we learn that, 
three years later, he was arrested and imprisoned because the 
members of the ayuntamiento found in possession of one of the 

Petition, May 1, 1789. Bexar Archives. 

2 The census for 1783 gave this number as 321 boys and 264 girls; the 
figures for 1791 are 285 boys and 268 girls. Bexar Archives. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 29 

alcaldes, certain papers of his, unworthily criticising the governor 
of the province. 1 However, no record of his trial appears. 

Some thirteen years later a new governor, Juan Bautista Elgue- 
zabal, tries his hand at stirring the community to an educational 
awakening. He issues a long decree that contains many regula- 
tions for the betterment of conditions, among which none is more 
important than the one in which he orders the alcaldes and the 
alguacil mayor to see that parents place their children in school, 
and to oblige them to do this under severe penalties, for the pro- 
vision was of the greatest importance to the religious and political 
life of the community. 2 The following year he attempts to enlist 
the cooperation of the cabildo in the matter. At the meeting of 
that body, on January 20, the main topic for discussion is the 
foundation of a school and the selection of its master. Jose Fran- 
cisco Kuiz, possibly a son of the pioneer pedagogue, is selected for 
the position, provided his minority does not render him incompe- 
tent to fill it. His residence, for the present, is to constitute the 
school-house. 3 

From the two items noted above, we should imagine that the 
school sessions had been, since 17S9, by no means regular or well 
attended. In all probability both private initiative on the part of 
the master and popular support from the individual citizens would 
be necessary for any sort of school whatever, and not infrequently 
one or both of these elements was lacking. The mystery about the 
matter is that the governor of the province should at all concern 
himself about education. Possibly the leaven of Eevilla G-igedo^s 
public schools, introduced at the capital during the previous decade, 
was just beginning to make itself felt in the far-off province of 
Texas. 

Another petition 4 of equally tantalizing and indefinite educa- 
tional import informs us that Francisco Barrera has been a school- 

^■Ayuntamiento vs. Don Vicente Amador, First Alcalde, for absence from 
the province without leave, January 20, 1792. 

2 Article 15 of Proclamation of Juan Bautista Elguezabal, January 10, 
1802. Bexar Archives. 

3 Act of cabildo, January 20, 1803. Bexar Archives. 

"March 24, 1809. Bexar Archives. 



30 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

master in the villa of San Fernando, and (possibly for this reason) 
finds himself unable to support his family. He asks for a license 
to engage in public writing, and after five or six persons have been 
examined, in order to ascertain his character, his request is granted. 
School-teaching certainly did not seem to pay in San Fernando, 
although at times the residents of the community seemed to rec- 
ognize the importance of having a few men of some educational 
ability in their midst. 

The next important educational effort occurred during the revo- 
lutonary days of 1811. On January 22 of that year Juan Bautista 
Casas overthrew the regular government and proclaimed one favor- 
able to the Mexican revolutionists. His actions while in power 
caused many to become disgusted with him, so the curate, Juan 
Manuel Zambrano, 1 organized a counter-revolution and overthrew 
him, March 1, 1811. Then Zambrano with a junta of eleven mem- 
bers, was selected by the principal inhabitants of San Fernando to 
administer the affairs of government and restore the royal author- 
ity. 2 It was this junta that took measures to organize more thor- 
oughly the school system of San Antonio by providing for the 
building of a school-house. Possibly Zambrano may have wished 
to impress the people with the desirability of continuing longer 
under the monarchial rule of Spain; or it may be that some of 
Hidalgo's emissaries, who fell into the hands of the counter-revo- 
lutionists, had carried considerable treasure with them, and the 
junta had considered this as the most profitable way of spending it. 
At any rate, 855 pesos were handed over to Don Bicente Travieso 
to be expended in the erection of a suitable building to serve as a 
school-house. In August, 1812, he was ready to submit his account, 
with its accompanying vouchers, showing the expenditure of 843 
pesos and five reales. The accounts were formally passed upon by 

Muan Manuel Zambrano had been banished from the province of Texas 
in 1807 upon petition of citizens and municipal officers alike for conduct 
unworthy of a priest. After his successful counter-revolution he was 
made a lieutenant colonel of the militia. In 1818 he was in command of 
the post of Bahia, but was later deprived of his office. Subsequently he 
appears as one of the escrutadores in an electoral junta of 1820. Evi- 
dently his career was full of vicissitudes. 

2 Bancroft, 'North Mexican States and Texas, II 17, 18. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 31 

the auditing committee and pronounced correct. 1 Everything, to 
judge from the document, seemed to be in due form, and it looked 
as if one might expect for the future a fairly well appointed school- 
house, filled with happy children, whose progress would be fondly 
watched by admiring parents. 

Unfortunately for the reputation of Don Bicente Travieso and 
those connected with him in this little "job," there exists an 
inventory of the belongings of the school, taken just about a 
month before Travieso passed in his accounts. In this inventory 
mention is made of only a small portion of the articles that he 
claimed to have furnished. It evidently refers to the same build- 
ing, for the description tallies perfectly, and Don Bicente is even 
mentioned by name, in the inventory, as having furnished three 
benches. The condition of the building was also deplorable. Doors 
and windows were without locks, and locks without keys; while 
even the water-barrel had a loosened hoop, which article was duly 
reported as one of the important items of the inventory. 2 Evi- 
dently the temptation to plunder the public was too strong for 
these worthy officials of old San Fernando. 

In the above inventory mention is made of a bench obtained 
from the previous school, so there had evidently been some sort of 
an educational organization, with its building, since the days of 
Governor Elguezabal. 3 Of course this building could have been 
the residence of the school-master. An undated manuscript of the 
Bexar Archives, evidently of this period, bids parents send their 
children, under twelve years of age, to the public school, as soon as 
it is completed. Meanwhile they are to give them the best possible 
instruction at home. One wonders what this might have meant, 
in those days and in San Fernando. 

As the new school-building approached completion, Jose Erasmo 
Seguin and Jose Antonio Saucedo reported a code of rules for its 
government. There should be places for seventy pupils, of which 

Account submitted by Don Bicente Travieso, August 10, 1812. Bexar 
Archives. 

inventory and conveyance of school-house and furniture made by Ygna- 
cio de los Santos Coy to Jose Ygnacio Sanchez Castellano, July 3, 1812. 
Bexar Archives. See Appendix A, Part I. 

3 See Appendix A, Part II. 



32 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

five should be free and at the disposal of the master, to he given 
to worthy persons of good disposition. The seventy places were 
to be divided into two classes, according to ability to pay; the 
first class paying a peso, and the second four reales each month. 
A pupil might be advanced in his studies, but the method of his 
payment was not to be altered. The teacher was to receive a salary 
of thirty pesos a month. One of the alcaldes, with the aid of the 
four ward commissioners, was to have charge of the collecting of 
the fund and to keep a sufficient amount on hand to be a month 
ahead in the payment of the teachers salary. One of the regidores 
was to visit the school at least once a day to note the infringements 
of the rules and to apply the appropriate remedy. All books, 
paper, extra seats, etc., were to be furnished by those needing 
them. 1 

The above rules suggest a beginning in the matter of public free 
education, although a very modest one. The salary of the teacher 
was not to be munificent, but it is to be doubted if the miserable 
village could pay, with any regularity, even this little stipend. 
If the alcalde and regidor carried out their duties conscientiously, 
they certainly had their hands full ; but we have already seen how 
easy it was for the municipal authorities of San Fernando to make 
a creditable appearance on paper, while falling far short of it in 
execution. But, however bright the educational prospects of San 
Fernando might appear for the moment, they were destined to be 
speedily eclipsed by the dark days of the Magee- Gutierrez raid of 
1813. 

The next educational effort of note dates from February 15, 
1815. At the meeting of the caoildo on that date, its members 
considered very earnestly the urgent need in their community of a 
teacher to instruct the youth in the "rudiments of Our Holy Eeli- 
gion and the Primary Branches (Primeras Letras)." For a long 
time they had felt this lack, but the fact that the unhappy commu- 
nity was wholly without means sufficient for the support of a 
teacher, utterly precluded them from making the provision that the 
lack demanded. Among the possible solutions of this problem was 
that all of those able should help to make a common contribution 

Report of June 10, 1812. Bexar Archives. See Appendix B. San Anto- 
nio had heen divided into four wards {barrios) in 1809; hence the use of 
the term ward commissioners (comisarios de barrio). 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 33 

of five hundred pesos, to pay the annual salary of a teacher. This 
suggestion seemed to present little difficulty; for they appeared to 
believe that the money would be contributed with great pleasure, 
in order that the children might not lack so useful and profitable 
a thing as an educational establishment. 

For the accomplishment of this purpose they needed the approval 
of the governor, and the latter was requested also to ask the com- 
manding general to assign for the use of the school the house of 
one of the insurgents of the recent invasion; since neither the 
cabildo nor the community could raise the two thousand pesos nec- 
essary for such a structure. 1 

The last request again brings to mind the "job" in connection 
with the construction of a school-house by Bicente Travieso, for 
why should a school-house be lacking, if built three years before, 
unless destroyed by some special calamity. If the latter had been 
the case some mention would surely have been made of the fact. 
In reading further in the records for that year, one learns that the 
province was in such a deplorable state, owing to Indian depreda- 
tions, that there was remote prospect, indeed, of raising even the 
modest salary for the teacher. While the soldiers of the garrison 
were without meat for the body, it was not at all likely that the 
children's intellectual needs would receive attention. 

Two years later the same matter was again brought up in the 
cabildo. The parents of children were to be solicited to contribute 
graciously, in order to pay promptly the teacher's salary. 2 We have 
a list of the contributors from the south ward in 1819. 3 The total 
money contributed was fifty-five pesos, four reales, and a fanega 
(about two bushels) of Indian corn. Let us hope, for the sake of 
the teacher, that the other three wards contributed more liberally. 
But even if they did, it is not at all likely that the whole contri- 
bution amounted to the five hundred pesos, which, in 1815, they 
talked so lightly of raising. 

a Act of cabildo, February 23, 1815. MS. in city clerk's office, San 
Antonio. In a later letter the commanding general assigns for the use of 
the ayuntamiento the house formerly belonging to the "traitor Vizente 
Travieso." Evidently Travieso belonged to the wrong party in the revolu- 
tionary days of 1813, despite his vigorous "pull" of the previous year. 

2 Act of cabildo, January 9, 1817. MS. in city clerk's office, San Antonio. 

"In the Bexar Archives. 



34 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

At a later meeting in 1817, they were informed by the teacher 
that some parents still persisted in the old abuse of taking their 
children from the school, without any motive, while others had 
entirely forgotten to comply with the order to send them. After 
mature deliberation, the village fathers decided that parents with- 
out any excuse should send their children to school, under penalty 
of suffering a fine of three pesos, and whatever punishment in addi- 
tion should be esteemed just. The governor could make what dis- 
position he pleased with reference to the children of soldiers. 1 

Three years later and in the year following were made the final 
efforts under the old regime. The cabildo again took into consid- 
eration "the establishment of a school for the instruction of the 
children." Don Ygnacio Villa Sehor was appointed a commis- 
sioner, to look after "the good order and management of the 
school." Don Ygnacio had complete authority from the governor 
and from the ayuniamiento (or cabildo) to enable him to bestow 
rewards or to punish those who failed in their duty to the school- 
master, in his teaching of the children. He had the same control 
over the parents with regard to the payment of tuition fees, and he 
was to notify them that on the last day of the coming month they 
must pay to their ward commissioner their school fees, according 
to their respective salaries. 2 

At the meeting held on the twenty-second of the following Feb- 
ruary the four members of the cabildo then present, resolved to 
request Governor Martinez to issue a proclamation requiring par- 
ents to keep their children within doors until a school should be 
established to give them the necessary education. In this manner 
they might prevent the gatherings which certain youths were accus- 
tomed to hold at night on the streets and plazas, and also keep 
them from balls and other spectacles improper for childhood. Two 
weeks later, as they thought that the youth of the city, through 
parental carelessness, were still given too much liberty to roam the 
streets, they received with favor the proposition of a citizen to 
establish a school at the expense of these same negligent parents. 
They were very willing to grant the request of the petitioner, for 

*Act of cabildo, April 10, 1817. MS. in city clerk's office, San Antonio. 

2 Acts of cabildo, February 10 and May 25, 1820. MSS. in city clerk's 
office in San Antonio. ,] ; .\ ef] 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 35 

they knew of no one else capable of teaching the children of the 
community, and if they had known snch a one they would have had 
no funds to expend for the purpose. Each of the regidores agreed 
also to take a certain number of the streets of the city and to visit 
the families of those living upon them in order to compel the par- 
ents to send their children to school and to pay the expenses of 
their tuition. 1 This act of the cabildo certainly seems definite 
enough in character to be productive of some results, but we meet 
in the minutes of the cabildo with no further mention of schools 
previous to the adoption of the Plan of Iguala. 

The above references, scattered through a period of some thirty 
odd years, will serve to give an idea of the efforts put forth, in an 
educational way, in the villa, or, after 1809, the "city" of San Fer- 
nando. Of course these efforts are pitifully weak in results, yet 
we must not judge the citizens of this frontier town of New Spain 
harshly, before we consider the educational status of our own fron- 
tier towns, on the eve of our independence from Great Britain. 
After a careful comparative view, we shall find ourselves more 
ready to render due credit for their efforts to clear the ground for 
the later educational structure of Texas. 

II. 

EDUCATION UNDER MEXICAN KULE. 

The year 1821 beheld the achievement of Mexican independence 
from Spain, but in the confusion of the next few years there 
occurred almost nothing of interest in Texas, from an educational 
standpoint. While there was taking place in Mexico the swift 
changes from colonial dependency to independent monarchy, and 
later to constitutional republicanism, the wonder is that a govern- 
ment of any sort continued to exist in the distant province of 
Texas. Naturally, during this period we learn of no new efforts 
in behalf of public education. The situation excites comment, 
however, among those who regret the intellectual barrenness of the 
time. From one report we learn that "owing to the vicissitudes of 
the time and the critical condition of this province, this city, the 

^cts of cabildo for February 22 and March 8, 1821. Bexar Archives. 



36 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

capital, wholly lacks funds for the education of the youth, as well 
as for erecting edifices of public utility and adornment." 1 

Three years later a more lengthy comment adds that the city 
is entirely without provision for public primary schools. The 
ayuntamientosj under the previous regime,, had now and then pro- 
moted the establishment of schools, but had displayed little or no 
energy in keeping them up. This fact has already been sufficiently 
illustrated from the testimony of the records. The salaries of 
teachers had remained unpaid, in default of funds; while their 
work was still further hampered by the failure of the parents to 
support them in the matter of discipline, or to cease the withdrawal 
of their children from school. Such was the miserable condition 
of the city that it was doubtful if the citizens could pay the 
expenses of a teacher from Mexico — and they had none in their 
own midst — or if they could prevail upon a teacher to stay in such 
a decadent community. 2 

The real progress of a country, in the condition of Mexico at 
the consummation of her independence, depends largely upon the 
unselfish and prudent foresight of its leaders. It will be interest- 
ing to note the presence or absence of that quality with regard to 
the question of education, in those who controlled the destinies of 
the dual State of Coahuila and Texas. The constitution of the 
State, ratified March 11, 1827, required tbat the method of instruc- 
tion should be uniform throughout the State, and that to facilitate 
this, congress should form a general plan for public instruction. 3 
There was to be a system of education, then, but this system must 
be formed upon an approved plan. What this plan was to be 
appeared in a later decree of the constitutional congress. 4 

According to this decree schools upon the Lancasterian plan were 
to be established in the capital of each of the three departments 
of the State. Qualified teachers, employed for three years, should 
be placed in charge of these establishments, at a salary of $800 per 
year, payable monthly in advance. The number of pupils in each 
school was limited to 150, but if more attended, the teacher might 

Report from Sala Capitular of San Fernando, 1822. Bexar Archives. 
2 Saucedo to the governor of the State, 1825. Bexar Archives. 
s Artiele 277. 
4 Decree No. 92, May 13, 1829. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 237-240. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 37 

request a proportionate increase of salary from the State authori- 
ties. The three teachers together were to form for the schools a 
set of regulations which, when approved by the executive, should 
be published. The course of instruction should consist of reading, 
writing, arithmetic, the dogma of the Catholic religion, and all of 
Ackerman's "Catechisms of Arts and Sciences/' 

Each ayuntamiento was required to ascertain what children 
could not attend, through lack of means, and from this number 
to select from one to five by lot, to be sent to school at the expense 
of that body. If there was no fund for this purpose, they should 
send at least one pupil by private subscription. The children of 
those citizens of the department of Texas who contributed towards 
establishing the existing school fund of San Fernando should be 
admitted free, provided their parents continued to pay their agreed 
quota. All citizens who could afford it should be obliged to send 
their children to these establishments, and due penalties could be 
inflicted on those who were obstinate in this particular. 

The ayuntamiento of the capital of each department was to take 
charge of the school fund, of which it should appoint the keeper. 
This fund should be made up of the existing school funds of the 
capital towns, all legacies for school purposes, all quotas assigned 
from the branches of municipal revenue, and the product of the pay 
pupils in each school. The parents of the latter should pay four- 
teen dollars per annum for each pupil, until he learned to write, 
when the pay should be eighteen dollars. The ayuntamiento was 
to be punctual in the collection of these sums and exact in keeping 
account of them. The proceeds of the fund were to be devoted to 
the payment of the teacher's salary, rent for building, and the 
making and repairing of the necessary furniture. The amount of 
money paid out must be accompanied by the receipts of the teacher, 
duly authenticated by the sindico-procurador and accompanied by 
an order from the alcalde. If the school fund was temporarily 
exhausted, the municipality could assist from its funds; if these 
also were exhausted, requisition might be made on the state agents. 
In either case, the money so advanced must be replaced as soon as 
possible. Each pupil, on leaving the school, was to pay to the 
ayuntamiento ten dollars, to be known as gratitude money, with 
which a special fund was to be created to be used to reward the 
teacher at the close of his contract. A formal account of these 



38 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

funds was to be rendered at the end of each fiscal year. In order 
to put this law into effect as soon as possible the executive was 
empowered to use two thousand dollars from the State revenues, 
for the purchase of the furniture, books, etc., necessary to carry out 
its provisions. 

In view of the limited educational exhibit so far made, the above 
law seems very comprehensive, indeed. The sympathies and aims 
of the authorities all appear to have been in the right direction, 
but in means for the accomplishment of the same, they were wholly 
deficient. Hardly a single provision of the above law was ever 
carried out as originally planned. 

The following year an attempt was made to put into force a 
modification of the above plan. Until the Lancasterian schools 
could be established, six primary schools were to be set up in the 
three departments of the State, in places where they were most 
needed. The teachers were to receive an annual salary of five hun- 
dred pesos, while the gratitude money of the pupils was to be 
reduced to six pesos. The ayuntamientos were to perform the 
duties prescribed by the other decree. Yearly samples of the work 
of the pupils were to be sent to the executive, to be reported to 
congress. 1 

The regulations of the new decree were carried out no better than 
those of the former, but that did not deter the State congress from 
passing additional . laws upon the same subject. By the terms of 
a new decree the executive was ordered to make three silver medals, 
to be paid for out of municipal or State funds, and these were to 
be worn by pupils on the days of public visits to the schools, as 
"rewards of virtue and application." The ayuntamientos should 
distribute these tokens in the schools under their direction, in 
accordance with the judgment of the teacher. The executive was 
also to obtain from the funds of the State a sufficient number of 
Fleuris's Castilian Grammar, Orthography, and Catechism, to be 
distributed among the pupils, also as rewards of "virtue and appli- 
cation. 2 If any of the above rewards ever reached San Fernando 
de Bexar, the records do not now indicate the fact. The above laws 
are interesting, however, in that they reveal the ideas of the State 

decree No. 129, April 13, 1830. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 258. 
"Decree No. 144, April 30, 1830. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 157. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 39 

officials concerning the best form of education. Very likely the 
Lancasterian system would have been the best adapted to their use, 
in order to reach the greatest number of pupils with the least outlay 
of money, but as a matter of fact, the State had no public money 
whatever to be used for schools, and never did have while the union 
of Texas with Coahuila lasted. The churchly element, too, still 
continued to constitute the greater portion of an all-round Mexican 
education. Aside from this, only the merest smattering of learning 
could be attempted. This was all that could be expected, at that 
time, for each community must begin almost from the very bottom 
in erecting its public school system. The native love of display 
was also to be strongly encouraged by suitable rewards for "virtue 
and application/' It is such a system as we should imagine an 
oppressed people, just entering into a state of freedom, would 
adopt; and especially when they had a very hazy idea of the 
responsibilities connected with this same freedom. The authorities 
seemed to feel the need of some system of education, but they were 
unable to hit upon the right way for obtaining it. However, they 
should be given credit for the desire, if not for its fulfillment. 

Three years later the State congress inaugurated a policy that 
promised more definite results. The various municipalities were to 
sell the public property within their limits. In all the capital 
towns of departments, where the funds were sufficient, primary 
schools should be established. In addition to the subjects already 
mentioned, instruction should be given in the elements of geog- 
raphy, morals, politics, and good breeding. The ayuntamientos 
were to designate buildings, as large as could be found, for the pur- 
poses of instruction and for the residence of the teacher. Schools 
were to be established in other towns as soon as possible, and in 
the most practicable manner. In addition to the private revenue 
belonging to the schools, one-half of the annual product of the 
municipal funds should be devoted to educational purposes, until 
the amount of the annual school fund should reach two thousand 
dollars. All vacant property was to revert to the State and was to 
be used for the schools. In all department and district capitals 
"juntas of public education" should be organized, consisting of the 
president of the ayuntamiento, the parish curate, and one other, 
appointed by the State executive. This junta was to have charge 
of funds, look after the attendance of pupils, employ qualified 



40 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

teachers and inspect their work,' assist the indigent and collect 
from the well-to-do, and in general to do everything to make the 
school system efficient. If the members did not perform their 
duties in a proper manner, any citizen might lodge a complaint 
against them. 1 

The above decree seems a step in the proper direction — that of 
allowing each community to attend to the matter of education with- 
in its own limits, and to provide funds for this purpose by allowing 
it the proceeds of the sales of the public land in its midst. It was 
with these two principles as the foundation that the present school 
system of our city has grown to such splendid proportions. A later 
decree 2 provided that the proceeds of the sale of the "commons" 
belonging to the city of San Fernando de Bexar should be reserved 
as a perpetual fund to be used exclusively for the payment of teach- 
ers of primary schools. Lest all here stated may seem ancient his- 
tory, it may be well to note that this law was recently cited in the 
suit brought by the school board of San Antonio for the recovery 
of some land claimed by the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio 
Eailroad. Yet, notwithstanding these new measures, the governor 
had to report, at the beginning of 1834, as he had done the previous 
year, that public instruction remained in the same condition as 
before. In his message of that year he expresses the wish that the 
parents of the State be aroused to the importance of educating their 
children, "in order to banish the chaos of ignorance in which the 
greater part of the communities lie." 3 

From the above references we may gain a pretty fair idea of the 
ambitious plans and tardy measures of execution adopted by the 
State authorities of Coahuila and Texas — plans soon to come to 
naught, so far as the greater part of the State was concerned, by 
the success of the Texas Revolution. Thus all of the projects of 
the central authorities were of no effect. It remains to be seen if 
those of the municipality of San Fernando, in a more restricted 
field of operations were doomed to a like failure. We have the 
oopy of a letter, dated Januarjr 31, 1826, from Jose Antonio Sau- 
cedo, the political chief of the Department of Texas, to Eafael G-on- 

a Decree No. 229, April 27, 1833. Gammel, Laws of Texas, I 323-327. 

2 N"o. 244, May 8, 1833. Gammel, Laics of Texas, I 336. 

3 Messages of governor to congress, 1833 and 1834. Bexar Archives. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 41 

zales the governor of the State of Coahuila and Texas, in which 
he reports the fact that a school was established in the city of San 
Fernando on the fifteenth of that month. The school had been 
established, that is, so far as funds for the payment of a teacher 
were concerned. These had been raised by private subscription. 
But a building, to serve as a school-house was still lacking, and this 
lack Saucedo wished the protecting hand of the "Honorable Assem- 
bly" (the State congress) to supply. He thought that San Fer- 
nando, as a community, merited this gift, which it could not, owing 
to a scarcity of ready money, procure for itself, and he promised his 
best efforts to see that it was prudently used. "With his letter he 
sent an estimate of the cost of the desired building which amounted 
to 746 pesos, 5 reales. The congress, however, did not grant the 
desired aid, for there was not sufficient assurance that the school 
work would be continued. 1 Before the promulgation of the State 
constitution we have the record of a patriotic junta, held May 26, 
1826, to provide for the establishment of a public school. There is 
a later reference to this 2 showing that contributions had been 
pledged on that occasion, but the amount is not reported. The 
next year, after the promulgation of the constitution, the sixteenth 
of September was celebrated in a most practical and helpful way 
by the installation of another patriotic junta, which later turned 
over to the school fund, the sum of 323 pesos, 6 reales* 

As the school fund is the most important part of the whole sys- 
tem, it may be well first to trace that of San Fernando de Bexar 
during the seven years (1828 to 1834, inclusive), of which we have 
record. Besides the amount given above from the patriotic junta, 
there was contributed during the year 310 pesos by individual citi- 
zens, of whom the three largest contributors gave 20 pesos each. 
The captain of the presidial company surpassed them all by sub- 
scribing 25 pesos ("only for this time," however). The smallest 
contributors gave only 4 reales each, and there were six of these. 
The total number of contributors was 74, including the two pueblos 

x Expediente, etc., for the construction of an edifice for a primary school, 
January 31, 1826. Bexar Archives. 

2 Minutes of ayuntamiento, May 27, 1830. City clerk's office, San 
Antonio. 

'Report of school fund, 1828-34. Bexar Archives. 



42 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

of Mission San Juan and Mission Espada. In addition to the cash 
contribution there was a note for 100 pesos, given by the company 
of Bexar, and one for 75 pesos, by the company of the Alamo. Be- 
sides this, the proceeds from fees for the slaughter of animals for 
1827 and 1828 contributed enough to raise the total receipts of the 
fund for 1828 to 1060 pesos and 6 granos. The fund was to con- 
tinue to be made up principally from direct contributions and the 
fees paid for the killing of animals. The disbursements for the 
year 1828 comprised simply the teacher's salary of 500 pesos. 

For the year 1829, the direct contributions dropped down to 91 
pesos. Evidently the members of the "Patriotic Junta" were losing 
some of their enthusiasm. Other branches of revenue also fell off, 
so that the actual cash balance, at the end of the year, was only 76 
pesos and 6| reales, although there were notes for 315 pesos and an 
unpaid account of 15 pesos, 2 reales. Of the subscription for 1828, 
76 pesos, 4 reales remained unpaid. In the month of October the 
authorities had been obliged to let their five-hundred-dollar teacher 
go, and take one who would serve for 22 pesos a month. During 
the early part of the following year there was some trouble with the 
former keeper of the school fund, Captain Alejandro Treviho. He 
did not transfer his account to the keeper ad interim until the 27th 
of May, although he should have done so on January 1st, and before 
that time he reported that, in a case of emergency, he had used 
some 50 pesos of the fund for giving presents to the Indians. As a 
military man, possibly this necessity appealed more strongly to him 
than that of educating the children. At first Captain Treviho 
claimed that he could not be deprived of his office as keeper of the 
fund, because he had been appointed by the "Patriotic Junta." 
Finally he turned over what he had on hand. The regular keeper 
was absent a considerable part of the time, so the fund often 
changed hands that year. There were many necessary repairs, and 
the twenty-two-dollar man stepped out and a six-dollar one took 
his place. This man, however, was only an assistant (ayudante); 
the real master was then serving without pay. At the end of the 
year the cash on hand amounted to some 39 pesos , with the same 
amount in notes as before. Evidently these notes had been given 
by the two garrison companies in an outburst of patriotic enthu- 
siasm that rapidly cooled. By the end of 1 834 these two companies 
had paid only 99 pesos on their four notes. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 43 

During 1831 there was collected by voluntary subscription 59 
pesos, 7 reales, and from slaughter fees (producto de la came) some 
162 pesos. The expenses that year were 135 pesos, the salary of 
the assistant for nine months, and five month's salary for a new 
teacher at 25 pesos a month. Other expenses for repairs left the 
fund with 30 pesos, 6 reales in cash. The notes by this time 
amounted to 270 pesos. For 1832 there are some new items among 
the receipts, such as a voluntary contribution of 100 pesos, donated 
by Doha G-ertrudis Perez, through her husband, Jose Casiano, and 
a loan of 50 pesos to the school fund from another branch of the 
municipal revenue. Contributions for that year added to the fund 
90 pesos, 5 reales. From it were paid salaries to the extent of 435 
pesos and expense of repairs, 13 pesos, 4 reales, leaving a balance 
of 296 pesos, 5 reales, of which only about 80 pesos were in cash. 
By the end of 1833 this cash balance amounted to 9 pesos only, 
although but 250 pesos had been paid out for salaries. Resort had 
again been had to borrowing from another fund, to eke out even 
this smaller sum. In 1834 only 144 pesos were paid to the assist- 
ant, but again it was necessary to borrow. At the close of that 
year the account of the school fund terminates, but receipts given 
by Bruno Huizar, as teacher, show that he was paid as late as Jan- 
uary 31, 1835. 1 

The "Ordinance for the Primary School of this City" (San 
Fernando de Bexar) 2 deserves more than the passing notice permit- 
ted by the limits of this article. At the very beginning the relig- 
ious foundation of the school system is marked by selecting the 
Child Jesus as the patron saint of the establishment and dedicating 
the twenty-fifth of December to a special celebration in his honor. 
Each year the teacher was to invite the parents of the pupils to 
contribute to the expenses of this occasion. The pupils were to 
address each other as "Citizen So-and-so," reserving "Senor" for 
the teacher and other elders. The two vacations of each year were 

1 The above facts are gleaned from the accounts of the school fund from 
1828-1834, inclusive, contained in the Bexar Archives, supplemented by 
occasional references to the minutes of the ayuntamiento during the years 
1830-32, and to receipts for salary given by the teachers. 

2 Drawn up by Juan de Beramendi, Refugio de la Garza, the parish 
curate, and Jose Maria Balmeceda, March 13, 1826. MSS. Bexar Archives. 
See Appendix C. 
a— o. 



44 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

to extend respectively from December 23 to January 1, and from 
the Wednesday of Holy Week to Easter Saturday. On festival 
days "of only one cross" school should be held as usual. Until the 
creation of a special fund, pupils should furnish their own books, 
paper, pens, etc. 

The course of study was to include "reading from book and from 
manuscript, writing, accounting in the first five and principal rules, 
of arithmetic, "some knowledge of the grammar of the language, of 
the doctrine of our Holy Keligion from the catechism of Father 
Eipalda, and the principles of good moral and political behavior 
and of the remaining social virtues." For his services in teaching 
these branches the school-master was to receive 500 pesos, but could 
accept no fees in addition from the pupils. Public "disputations" 
were to be held every four months. Some members of the ayun- 
tamiento were to visit the school each week, and for their first visit 
the teacher must have his list of pupils ready for inspection. 

The length of the daily sessions would have been terrifying alike 
to modern pupil and teacher. In the summer — from April to 
October — they extended from six to eleven in the morning, and 
from two to six in the afternoon. During the winter the morning 
session extended from seven until twelve, but the afternoon session 
was unchanged. The school was to be opened and closed with 
prayer. A recess of a half hour was to be granted at 9 a. m. for 
the purpose of taking breakfast (almorzar). Three questions on 
Christian doctrine were to form the memory lesson for the morn- 
ing, and as many more for the afternoon. The last hour of each 
session was to be devoted to hearing lessons and correcting work. 
On the last Saturday of each month the two lower divisions of 
pupils were to have a sort of contest among themselves in their 
written work and in reading. The other Saturday afternoons the 
first and second departments were to employ in a very short mem- 
ory lesson in Spanish grammar, while the third department should 
review the questions of Christian doctrine learned during the week. 

The most peculiar thing in the whole system, from our stand- 
point, but doubtless one of the distinguishing methods of a Lan- 
casterian school, was the division of the student body into two 
general parties, "the Eomans and the Carthaginians," each having 
a president, six captains, and six corporals. The presidents were 
required to know how to write well ; to know the first four rules of 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 45 

accounting, two-thirds of the catechism, and the same portion of 
Spanish grammar and of the constitution of the country. The 
captains must present half of these qualifications; the corporals, a 
third part. The two parties were each divided into three classes: 
the first comprising the captains and corporals; the second, those 
who were already writing and who were under the immediate orders 
of the captains ; the third, those who were simply reading, who were 
in charge of the corporals. An equal number of pupils was assigned 
to each officer. Sky blue was to be the color of the Eoman party, 
and crimson that of their opponents. Each officer was to have his 
rank appropriately designated, and the presidents, on public occa- 
sions, should carry a cane. Doubtless where only one teacher could 
be provided for 150 pupils, some such system of student espionage 
and display was necessary, but to us it seems ridiculous. 

The duties of the teacher by no means ended with the regular 
school hours. He must look after and admonish his pupils regard- 
ing their language, public conduct, and deportment toward their 
elders. On the Fridays and Sundays of Lent he must conduct the 
children in a body to the church. On all Sundays and festal days 
the children must assemble at school an hour before the principal 
mass, in order to attend that function in a body. These occasions 
doubtless would afford a fine opportunity for display on the part 
of the student officers. 

The chapter on punishments includes such penalties as shutting 
up the culprits in the school-house or keeping them in it under 
arrest during holy days, employing them in sweeping, for a week 
at a time only, giving them the dunce's seat {el asiento del aprovio), 
shutting them up in a room called the ware-house {almacen) dur- 
ing the day time, flogging for robbery of any sort, and the impo- 
sition of a like penalty upon those who, from failure in lessons or 
in writing, have to return to the dunce's seat within a week. The 
teacher was to attend to the application of these punishments with 
all the harmony and equity that the occasion demanded. Some of 
these rules make interesting reading, and are doubly so, owing to 
the fact that they are still in force in Mexican schools. The above 
system of rules was submitted to the teacher, who agreed to enforce 
it, and afterwards it was accepted by the ayuntamiento . 

It may be well to mention the names of the teachers who were 
to put into force this elaborate system. The pedagogue whose 



46 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

acceptance is noted above, was Jose Antonio Gama y Fonseca, who 
contracted himself to serve four years from January 1, 1828, at the 
promised salary of 500 pesos per annum. He served until the 
ninth of October, 1829. He was succeeded by Victoriano Zepeda, 
who served for a monthly stipend of 22 pesos, until January 31, 
1830, when he begged to be excused to accept other employment 
bringing him in greater returns. A committee, appointed by the 
ayuntamiento, then tried to secure the services of Domingo Bus- 
tillos, but he wished 25 pesos a month, so they could come to no 
agreement with him. At this juncture Francisco Rojo offered to 
fulfill the duties of the position without pay as long as he should 
remain in the community. The ayuntamiento accepted with heart- 
felt thanks this unselfishly patriotic offer, without, however, bind- 
ing themselves not to give him some remuneration for his services. 
Sefior Rojo probably estimated this proviso at its true value. The 
assistant, Bruno Huizar, received the only salary paid for the time 
being, and this amounted to six pesos a month. Upon representa- 
tion of the preceptor Rojo, this was increased, in July, to eleven 
pesos, two reales. By the end of the year this was again raised, 
this time to fifteen pesos a month. He had previously asked per- 
mission to act as sacristan of the parish church, but the ayunta- 
miento preferred to raise his salary and retain him wholly in the 
service of the school. It is not at all strange, with such salaries 
for teachers, that the visiting committee from the ayuntamiento 
should report, in May, that they found a very small number of 
pupils in the schools. The teachers evidently did not wish to work 
any harder than necessary for their meagre pay. 

By January, 1831, the ayuntamiento was again under the neces- 
sity of looking for a new school-master. Sefior Rojo had evidently 
tired of his unselfish labors, or had taken his departure from the 
community. The committee appointed to consider the matter 
reported that they had advertised for a teacher, offering as a salary 
the endowment of 500 pesos promised by the State; 1 but that to this 
offer they had received no response, for prospective pedagogues evi- 
dently did not fully trust the ability of the State to pay. The com- 
mittee favored making an application to their representatives in 
congress, to select for them a teacher in Saltillo from among the 
number that presented themselves in that city. By the following 

decree ISTo. 129, April 13, 1830. See above, p. 38. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 47 

July a suitable candidate appeared in their midst, offered himself, 
and was accepted at the salary of 25 pesos a month. Juan Fran- 
cisco Buchetti, the new preceptor, agreed to serve two years for 
that pay, commencing in August, 1831. He served the rest of the 
year, all of 1832, and three months of 1833, when he resigned his 
position to the faithful assistant, Bruno Huizar, who, like Tenny- 
son's brook, seemed destined to go on forever in his place, while 
head masters continued to come and go. 

In his petition to the ayuntamiento to be released from serving 
the remaining four months stipulated in his contract, Buchetti 
alleged that he had to depart from the city in order to engage in 
other employment. The members of the ayuntamiento agreed, 
"with extraordinary unanimity," to grant his request, especially in 
view of the fact that for a year he had been extremely tardy in 
fulfilling his duties and had been guilty of such serious irregu- 
larities of conduct as "drunkenness and a scandalous mode of living 
with his new wife." Perhaps the latter relation may account for 
the unhappy pedagogue's downfall; for, if we may judge from the 
ayuntamiento records, he had been unusually active during the 
earlier portion of his service. 

Huizar continued to act as sole master during the remainder of 
1833. For the year 1834 we have the record of 144 pesos paid to 
the preceptor of the school, who is none other than the faithful 
Bruno. The salary paid later, eighteen dollars a month, seems just 
about adapted to him, and it remains unchanged as late as the suc- 
ceeding January, when our records fail. 1 

A vigorous teacher could find much to occupy his spare time, if 
such he had, after the prescribed hours of service. All improve- 
ments and repairs in the school-building must come as a result of 
his personal intervention in the meetings of the ayuntamiento. He 
must also take charge of any functions in which the school partici- 
pated. Buchetti was active in urging improvements, and the men- 
tion of the "maestro" in the minutes of the ayuntamiento is espe- 
cially frequent during his incumbency. He often appeared before 
that body to report cases of insubordination and ask for special 
power to deal with the same; or to complain of the poor furniture 
and petition for new, or to present the bill for articles made or 
purchased at his suggestion. In fact, the minutest details of school 

J Eeport of school fund and minutes of ayuntamiento. 



48 lexas Historical Association Quarterly. 

management seemed none too trivial for the consideration of the 
"Illustrious Ayuntamiento" ; and the mark of a good teacher seemed 
to be to give that body plenty of material for action. 

The matter of raising the money for a special celebration, such 
as that of the twenty-fifth of December, was also in the hands of 
the teacher; and, from what we know of money-raising in San 
Fernando, this was far from being an easy task. The ayuntamiento 
had also permitted Buchetti to cultivate the public lots of the house 
of the ayuntamiento during his continuance in office ; possibly after 
attending to his many executive duties, he might feel the need of 
outdoor exercise, although one must wonder where he could find 
the time for it. His successor, Huizar, evidently had his hands 
full, inasmuch as he petitioned the ayuntamiento to use its good 
offices to have him released from militia service. Very likely he 
lacked other things than time, but he may well have thought that 
nine hours a day in the school-room, at the munificent salary of 
eighteen dollars a month, was all the service in behalf of "God and 
Liberty" that could reasonably be asked of him. 

For the greater portion of the time one of the members of the 
ayuntamiento had charge of the school fund, the ultimate control 
always resting with that body. Angel Navarro, the third regidor, 
for two years served in this capacity. Usually the keeper of the 
fund, in company with another member, served as the committee 
for visiting the schools, supposedly once a week. Two visits only 
are mentioned during the two years of Buchetti's incumbency, so 
it must have been that this regulation was more honored in the 
breach than in the observance. All elections of teachers, increase 
of salaries, in fact, everything in connection with the school had to 
come before the ayuntamiento. It was also the function of this 
body, acting through the alcaldes or keeper of the school fund 
(depositario) . to stir up individual contributors to pay their quotas. 
Of these delinquents the teacher usually furnished the list, and 
either he or his assistant often helped in collecting from them. 
In many matters concerning the public schools the parish curate 
acted with the committee of visitors, either ex officio or by special 
appointment, as was the case in formulating the code of rules. 

With a system involving such elaborate details, evidently planned 
for external effect, if not for permanent results, what was the net 
result upon the community at large? We can not measure this 
with any degree of accuracy, but it is possible to note the fact that 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 49 

every teacher of this period complained of the non-attendance of 
pupils and gave to the ayuntamiento long lists of parents who were 
remiss in sending their children or in paying the voluntary sub- 
scriptions they had pledged. These contributions were to be paid 
in three equal installments during the year, but there seems to have 
been no regularity displayed in complying with this rule. Mention 
has already been /made of the most important individual gift — that 
of Dona G-ertrudis Perez. Another of moment was that of twenty- 
seven copies of a life of Saint Peter, to be used as rewards for the 
pupils. After careful inspection by the curate and a special com- 
mittee to determine if the work was of suitable character, these 
were accepted with thanks. It is unfortunate that the name of the 
donor of this latter gift comes down to us in the records simply 
as "George Nixon's clerk." After taking up so much space in the 
discussion of his gift, it certainly seems that the ayuntamiento 
might have thought his name worthy of mention. 

Only during the two visits to the school made while Buchetti was 
master, did the inspection committee find the work progressing with 
any degree of satisfaction. At all other times they spoke regret- 
fully of the few pupils in attendance and the many children run- 
ning loose in the streets. Threatened pains and penalties did not 
seem to terrify the indifferent parents. 1 According to the statis- 
tical report for the year 1832, there were in the city of San Fer- 
rando de Bexar 297 boys and young men and 334 girls and young 
vomen between the ages of seven and twenty-five. For the follow- 
ing year these numbers were 296 and 334, respectively. 2 For the 
former year Buchetti reports an enrollment of 100 and for the 
latter, Huizar reports 60. Further comment upon these figures is 
unnecessary. In his report on Texas in 1834, Almonte remarks 
concerning schools : 

"In Bexar there exists one supported by that ayuntamiento; but, 
as it appears, its funds have become so reduced that not even this 
useful establishment has been able to survive. What will be the 
lot of those unfortunate Mexicans who live in the midst of barba- 
rians, without hope of civilization ?" 3 

Report and minutes as above, passim. 

2 Messages of governor of State for 1833 and 1834. Bexar Archives. 

"Report of Almonte in Documentos Para la Historia de Mexico, 4th 
Series, V 40. Biblioteca National, Mexico. This report was published in 
1835. 



50 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

It was not given to Colonel Almonte to read the future, so he 
could not know his despairing question anent the results of efforts 
toward education in San Fernando was to receive its answer in the 
rifle shots that rang from the Alamo and on the battlefield of San 
Jacinto. Had he understood the significance of those historic 
events, he might have recognized the fact that the Anglo-American 
was to accomplish what the Spanish- American had only attempted, 
and that in the hands of the former the lot of the Mexicans domi- 
ciled on this side of the Rio Grande, was, educationally, to be infi- 
nitely brighter than it had been thus far. 

APPENDIX A. 
Part I. 

Inventory and conveyance of the school-house and of the furni- 
ture in it, made by Don Ygnacio de los Santos Coy, to his suc- 
cessor, D. Jose Ygnacio Sanchez Castellano, 1 in the following formj 

First, a hall with platform, with two doors and one window; thf 
key of one door being serviceable, and the other broken, and tm 
window without any lock. 

A room adjoining the hall, with its interior door without lockj 
and one small window, with bars only. 

A wooden cross. 

Four tables, one of them smaller than the others. 

Four benches, one of these from the previous school, and th^ 
three remaining of those which D. Vizente Travieso made. 

Two rulers, one of them with two measures lacking from eacl. 
side, and the other with three lacking. 

A barrel for carrying water, with five iron hoops. 

A hoop loosened from the above barrel. 

A wooden gutter. 

A rawhide rope. 

A trough of rough wood. 

Thirteen ABC lists, the greater part <3i them interleaved. 

Note. — In addition to the above, there exists, in process of 
repair, in possession of D. Manuel Yudo, a table of this school; 

^his document and those under Appendices B and C are translated from 
the original MSS. in the Bexar Archives. 



Educational Efforts, in San Fernando. 51 

and having nothing else to convey or receive, we sign this in this 
city of San Fernando de Bexar on the third of July, 1812. 

Eeceived 
Ygno. de los Santos Coy. Jose Ygnacio Sanchez 

Castellaiio. 

Part II. 

Note of what is in the school/ towit : 
4 Copy books. 

One lead Inkstand with a Sandbox of the same [metal]. 
One Ruler. 

One Print of St. Joseph. 
One Cross. 
One Table. 

One Cube with its Chaqual and all the primers and drawings of 
the children. 

Note. 
Missed r One Pencil. 
One old book of Lives of Saints. 
One book of daily exercise. 
2 Primers. 

This, February 1st, 1809. 

Fernando de Santiago. 

appendix B. 

School. 

Having determined whether there be a worthy person to take 
charge of it, who meanwhile may instruct the youth, he shall be 
endowed with seventy places, of which five, of necessity, shall be 
free, and the rest paid for by those interested. 

1. The aforesaid free places shall remain at the disposal of the 
one in charge of the school, who. shall nominate the pupils to 
occupy them ; he taking care that they are given to poor individuals 
of discretion, who are known to be of good disposition. 

2. The seventy places shall be divided into the more able and 
the less able, the first paying a dollar, and the second fifty cents 
each month. Although each pupil may be advanced in his classes, 

^n the back of a report of the condition of the garrisons of Texas. 
Bexar Archives. 



52 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

the method or order of his payment should not be altered in any- 
other way than is by this assigned to him; for the end is to avoid 
large contributions from the poorer ones. 

3. The salary for the maintenance of the teacher shall be placed 
at thirty dollars a month. 

4. The collection of the fund shall be in charge of one of the 
alcaldes, who, with the aid of the ward commissioners [comisarios 
de 'barrio'], 1 shall look after the attendance of the children at school, 
and [shall take care] that they be at least a month ahead in the 
salary of the teacher, in order that he may not lack subsistence, 
and that any surplus be turned into a general fund for the ordinary 
expenses of the school. 

5. That one of the regidores be charged to visit the school at 
least once a day, in order to note the infringements of the rules 
that he may observe, and to apply the remedy that appears to him 
most opportune, as the case may demand. 

6. That the books, paper, ink-stands, and copy-books be at the 
expense of those interested, as also the tables and seats, in addition 
to those which may be existing in the school-house. 

These are the points which we consider necessary for the useful 
establishment of this school, save those which may appear conven- 
ient to the superior authorities. 

San Fernando de Bexar, 10 of June, 1812. 

Jose x\ntonio Saucedo. Josef Erasmo Seguin. 

appendix c. 

ORDINANCE WHICH SHALL BE OBSERVED IN THE PUBLIC 
FREE PRIMARY SCHOOL DEDICATED TO THE 'INSTRUCTION OF 
THE YOUTH OF THE VICINITY OF BEXAR: 2 

Chapter I. 

General Provisions. 

Art. 1. The Holy Patron of this pious establishment shall be 
the Christ Child, and on the 25 of December, when his festival is 
celebrated, there shall be a Church function and some other public 

'San Fernando had been divided into four wards in 1809. 

2 For the year 1828. In the translation of this code of rules the literal 
expression of the original has been followed or imitated as closely as pos- 
sible, the changes being, for the most part, only in punctuation. The 
capitalization and parentheses are those of the manuscript. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 53 

demonstrations of worship and of merriment, which shall be 
decided upon annually by the teacher, who shall present them 
beforehand to the Illustrious Ayuntamiento for its approbation or 
amendment, 

2. Two months previous to said festival the Teacher shall send 
an invitation, by writing, to the Parents of all the Children, invit- 
ing them to make a contribution to defray the costs of this religious 
act, and these shall cooperate freely, according to their means, with 
whatever amount they wish, or with nothing, if they thus think 
best. 

3. Before the close of the eight days following this function, 
the Teacher shall present to the Illustrious Ayuntamiento a written 
statement of the amount of the contribution, and of the objects for 
which it was spent. 

4. Over the principal Doorway of the house which serves for 
a School shall be placed an inscription of the following tenor: 
PUBLIC FKEE PKIMAKY SCHOOL. 

5. The style of address of the children among themselves, 
within or without the School, shall be that of Citizen So-and-so; 
and that which they shall use for the Teacher, as for all other 
persons their elders, shall be that of Senor. 

6. All the children for the present and while the corresponding 
funds are being created, shall furnish their Syllable-books, Books, 
paper, pens and the remaining necessary articles, which the Teacher 
may require of them. 

7. In the course of each year there shall be two periods during 
which the children shall enjoy a holiday or vacation, one of these 
lasting from the Wednesday of Holy Week until Easter Saturday, 
and the other from the 23 of December to the 1st of the following 
January, inclusive. 

8. On feast days of only one cross there shall be school in the 
same manner as on all other days. 

Chapter II.- 

The Principal Points upon which has been based the contract 
agreed upon with the Teacher who is to serve the school, and 
some other rules which bear relation to them. 

9. - Citizen Jose Antonio Gama y Fonseca is obligated sponta- 
neously and solemnly to teach, for four years reckoned from the 1st 



54 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

of January of the present year, all the youths of this vicinity, under 
the rules that have been prescribed for him or which shall be in 
the future; to read books and manuscript; to write, to calculate in 
the first five principal rules of Arithmetic; to take care that they 
receive some knowledge of the Grammar of the Language, likewise 
of the Doctrine of our Holy Religion by means of the catechism 
of Father Eipalda, and of the principles of good Morals and Man- 
ners, and other social virtues. 

10. He shall enjoy annually the salary of $500, to be paid at 
the completion of each month, executing for this purpose partial 
receipts in favor of the Illustrious Ayuntamiento , which shall 
always be the immediate administrator of the funds destined and 
collected for this object. 

11. In consequence of the preceding article, the Teacher is 
deprived of the power of exacting, even indirectly, from the pupils, 
any kind of payment, remuneration, or contribution; (not even 
that which is customary in other schools under the name of Fri- 
days), unless their Parents desire to reward him spontaneously 
with some gift, as a token of their gratitude. 

12. He is prohibited also from selling seats, or other abuses of 
this kind, which a corrupt custom has introduced into our schools. 

For the first visit which must be paid to the school by the Illus- 
trious Ayuntamiento the Teacher shall have formed a list of all the 
pupils, expressing their names, ages, date of entrance, and the state 
of instruction in which they then were, and a blank margin to the 
right, in order to note the Progress and Retrogression, which may 
be occurring, in accordance with the model which will be assigned 
to him; likewise showing the copy-books and remaining documents 
which may serve as evidence of the progress of the Children. 

The Teacher shall be likewise prepared and in agreement with 
the Curate of the place regarding the visits which the latter must 
make to the School as Priest of this parish; agreeing also during 
the time of Lent upon the days and the methods in which the chil- 
dren must make their confessions, in order to fulfill their duties 
annually with the Church. 

Each four months the Teacher shall hold a public contest in the 
School itself, announcing three days beforehand to all the vicinity 
that 12 pupils (six from each Band) will compete, and in this 
contest six individuals, who shall be invited in writing, shall serve 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 55 

as synodals ; x he indicating to them the matters in which they may 
examine the participants, any one else in attendance being free to 
examine them also. 

The contest being concluded, the Director associated with the 
synodals, after previous information which he shall give them con- 
cerning the progress of the Children who have participated in it, 
shall proceed to the grading, which shall be done in three degrees — 
Superlative, Comparative, and Positive, or especially good, very 
good, and good; there being next drawn up a record, which shall 
be filed at the School, indicating those who have been accredited 
to the first, to the 2nd, and to the 3rd grade, signed by the synodals 
and the Teacher ; then they shall proceed to distribute among those 
of the 1st and 2nd places badges of distinction, which they shall 
wear placed upon the left arm, as will be shown in the first instance 
which occurs. 

Chapter III. 

Concerning the internal management of the School. 

This shall commence its work promptly every day in the Summer 
from six to eleven, and from seven to twelve in the Winter for 
the mornings, and for the afternoon, in each season, from two 
until six. The period of Summer shall be reckoned from the 1st 
of April to the last of September, and the six remaining months 
for the Winter. 

At the said hours, with the number of Children that are present, 
the Teacher shall begin School with a devout prayer dedicated to 
the Supreme Being (which shall also be repeated at the closing) ; 
assigning next the distinct occupations with which the pupils are 
to employ themselves. 

Of all these there shall be formed two parties, or Bands (Borne 
and Carthage), and in each one there shall be a President, six Cap- 
tains and six corporals; which positions for the first time shall be 
filled by the Teacher, according to the experience of the Children, 
and afterwards they shall have the option of them who in the public 
and private Disputations are most distinguished for their advance- 
ment and application. The captains and corporals shall be denom- 
inated in numerical order from 1st to 6th, according to winch they 
shall take position, whenever they form, at the head of their bands. 

a That is, examiners. 



56 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

In order to be President it is at least necessary to be already 
writing [de delgado~] -, 1 to know the first four rules of counting ; 
two-thirds of the catechism, the same of the lessons of Spanish 
Grammar, and some others concerning the constitution which may 
be taught them. The Captains must present a half of these quali- 
fications, and the corporals a third of them, all of these being under 
the judgment of the Director, upon the supposition that the instruc- 
tion which is demanded shall be perfect. 

The bands shall be divided amongst themselves into three depart- 
ments; the 1st shall be composed of the captains and the corpo- 
rals, and shall be called the Department of officers, and shall be 
immediately subject to its respective President; all those who are 
already writing shall form the second and it shall be under the 
immediate orders of the captains; and the third shall be composed 
of readers only, and the corporals shall have charge of it ; the num- 
ber of children composing it being distributed among them in equal 
parts, the same being done in the 2nd for the captains. 

The daily device that the officers shall wear, within and outside 
the school, shall be three fluted ribbons placed crosswise upon the 
left breast and a bar of white metal which crosses the three bands 
in the middle, commencing in the 1st and terminating in the 
3rd, for the president; two arranged similarly for the captains, 
and one for the corporals, both without bars, the Eomans being 
distinguished from the Carthaginians in that the device of the first 
shall be sky-blue, and scarlet that of the second; the Presidents 
shall carry in addition, for all public occasions, in the hand the 
most suitable cane possible. Each Band shall have a white Banner 
with the inscription in the middle of Rome or Carthage, in con- 
formity with the model which shall be given, and these shall be 
placed in the school at the head of the party to which each one 
corresponds; it being the duty of the corporals of the sixth rank 
to bear these banners whenever they have to go in regular order 
outside the School, occupying the position which belongs to the 
Bearers. 

In addition there shall be a place of opprobrium for the Children 
of both bands, designated by the Teacher and destined for the indo- 
lent or those who have relapsed into shortcomings in their respec- 

^his expression is too puzzling for an attempt at translation. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 57 

tive subjects, which they shall not be able to leave until they give 
full proof of application and amendment, and with previous sup- 
plication from the commander of the Squad to which they belong. 

The duties of the President shall be : 1st, to receive immediately 
the orders which the Teacher may have to communicate to the 
School; 2nd, to cause these to be observed and properly fulfilled 
by their respective bands, as well as all those prescribed in this 
regulation, under immediate responsibility to the Director, for 
which purpose they shall make use of the captains and corporals 
of their command, who shall be subordinate to them in everything ; 
3rd, to preside over their respective bands whenever they are gath- 
ered in regular order ; 4th, to reply themselves in the public or pri- 
vate disputations, whenever an individual of their respective bands 
is unable to do so; 5th, to give an account to the Teacher of the 
faults which they observe in the Children inside and outside of the 
School, correcting them themselves by a serious admonition, or 
ordering them to kneel down, if the fault should be grave, and 
giving notice immediately to the Teacher, who shall carry into 
effect these punishments in the best possible way, unless injustice 
should be manifest. 

The Department of readers shall be immediately in charge of 
the corporals, each one of these taking care to assign and hear, 
morning and evening, the Children of his Squad in the correspond- 
ing lesson and other tasks provided for them, giving account of 
the result to his respective President in order that the latter may 
do the same, in turn, to the Teacher; both of these should them- 
selves frequently surprise the instructors in order to see if they 
comply with their duties, especially when some punishment is to be 
applied to anyone whatever of the Children, of whom his immediate 
director has given a bad report. 

In the same manner and under the same conditions as given in 
the preceding article, by which the department of reading has to 
be subject to the six corporals, the department of writing shall be 
subject to the six captains, and the department composed of the 
former and the latter officers to the Presidents, and each one of 
these sections shall be denominated a Squadron. 

As the next act after the invocation to the Supreme Being which 



58 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

the a article prescribes, each of the captains and corporals shall 

gather those of his Squadron in their respective seats — (which 
shall be changed only through having obtained some promotion or 
degradation), and shall proceed immediately to hear their lessons, 
to rule paper for them, to pass lists, etc. 

The Teacher shall observe very scrupulously that all the officers 
fulfill their respective duties — and the least failure shall render 
them liable to be deposed from the employment, — and to correct 
them seriously, especially when through animosity or partiality they 
conceal or exaggerate the faults of their subordinates. 

In the morning at 9 the Children shall be permitted to go out 
to breakfast, the Teacher taking care that this interruption does 
not last more than half an hour. 

He shall take care, also, that the special work of each department 
shall be terminated morning and afternoon an hour before dismis- 
sal and that this interval be employed in hearing lessons and in 
correcting exercise books. 

Three questions of Christian doctrine in the morning, and as 
manv more for the afternoon, shall be the memory lessons which 
shall be imposed upon all the pupils, including from every faithful 
Christian, and marking each point separately by questions up to 
where they begin. 

On the last Saturday in each month the Children of the first 
and second departments (one band against another) shall have, in 
the afternoon, a contest in which shall be considered the exercises 
and their respective instruction in reading, and the memory lessons 
which they have learned ; and the decision shall rest upon the judg- 
ment of the Teacher, there being an appeal from his judgment 
only to the individual vote of three residents, simply in the branch 
of writing. 

The conquered party shall have to file in front of the conquer- 
ors who shall be seated in their places, and as each pupil of the 
former class arrives in front of the one who surpassed him, he shall 
kneel on one knee to the ground and shall remain until the latter 
shall lift him up, saying to him: Have a little more application. 
The President only in every case, and those who have surpassed, 

a It was evidently intended that the numbers after 12, which are want- 
ing in the MS., should be inserted, and that this blank should be rilled 
to correspond. The article referred to would thus have been numbered 
the 18th. 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 59 

although they may be of the conquered party, shall not perform 
this last act of acknowledgment; but they shall remain standing 
after they have filed past until the last of their associates shall have 
performed it; and the Banner of the conquered shall remain furled 
until the} r recover the lost honor. 

Challenges shall also be permitted, at one time it may be of one 
band against another, at another of the individuals of the same 
one amongst themselves, observing in the first case everything pro- 
vided in the preceding article; and in the second case the punish- 
ment of the conquered shall be to go down to che place which the 
conqueror held, the latter going up to the place of the former. 

For the remaining Saturdays, in the afternoon, the Children of 
the first and second Departments shall be employed only in learning 
a memory lesson, the shortest possible, of Spanish Grammar, and 
of any other manuscript compendium that shall be formed for 
them. They shall become accustomed among themselves to ask 
and answer questions, and those of the third shall merely take a 
review of all the questions of Christian Doctrine with which they 
may have been occupied during the week. 

Failure of attendance on the part of the Presidents, as well as 
that of any of the captains or corporals, shall be constantly pro- 
vided for by the immediate successor, whether it be to obtain pos- 
session of the place, or to fill it provisionally while the absent one 
is not in attendance. 

The day after the disputation provided for during each four 

months in article / the rest of the Children shall be subjected 

to an examination by the Teacher and the twelve participants, and 
all those residents who wish may also be present. According to 
the greater or less amount of learning which they show, they shall 
be judged as belonging to the first, second, and third grade, without 
giving them the honorary distinction of the badge provided for in 
the cited article. 

Chapter IV. 

Rules which shall be taught to the Children for their conduct out- 
side the School. 

The Teacher shall especially take care to admonish them con- 
cerning the propriety and moderation with which they ought to 
comport themselves in their homes, in the Church, on the street, 

^his blank should have been filled with the number 15. 
3-C. 



60 Texas Historical Association Quarterly. 

and in all their intercourse with their elders, advising them that 
above all things, they abstain from the detestable use of obscene 
words, from disputes, and from prohibited games. 

On Fridays and Sundays of Lent in the afternoon, the Teacher 
shall take care to conduct the Children to recite the Via Cruris 
and to hear the accustomed doctrinal discourse. To do this he 
shall try to shorten the duties of the School and to accomplish 
the same as on all the remaining days, he agreeing with the Curate 
of the place, whether before the discourse the Pupils may be exer- 
cised in a Catechism of Christian doctrine. 

On all Sundays and observed festal days of the year the Children 
shall be assembled at the School an hour before high Mass, in order 
to attend it in regular order. 

On all occasions when the Children have to attend Church, in 
their going and coming, they may go praising God by means of 
some devout song in which the Teacher shall instruct them, seeing 
that all of those who can carry some book in which shall be 
explained the unspeakable mysteries of this august Sacrifice. 

For the purpose of keeping order in the ranks, the first and 
second captains of each band shall be employed, without having 
any place therein, going back and forth along their respective lines, 
to cause the best order and propriety to be observed. 

Each one of the Presidents shall have a copy of this regulation, 
and shall cause the captains and corporals to read it at least once 
a week, and for this purpose they shall make all the copies possible, 
the Teacher himself, moreover, taking care to read it aloud at least 
once a month. 

The Presidents for all cases which present themselves shall refer 
to what is prescribed in this regulation. 

Chapter V. 

Penal Laws. 

The punishments which shall be applied to the Children who 
may commit some fault shall be: to put them on their knees in 
the School; to keep them under arrest in the same on holidays; 
to employ them in sweeping and in other cleaning, for a whole 
week, no more; to assign them to the seat of opprobrium until they 
recover their lost standing ; to imprison them in a room or dungeon, 
which shall be called the Warehouse, but they shall not pass the 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 61 

night in it. In case that any pupil shall be convicted of robbery, 
within or outside of the School, he shall be punished with six 
stripes, the same penalty being inflicted upon those who relapse 
into their faults in lessons or writing after having been a week in 
the place of opprobrium. 

The Teacher shall take care that all punishments be applied to 
the Children with all possible forbearance and equity, in propor- 
tion to the nature of the faults and persistence therein. 

Failures in reading, in the copy-books, in accounting, or mem- 
ory lessons shall be regarded as relapses, if they are repeated within 
the space pf one week. 

It remains under the immediate responsibility of the Teacher 
alone to look out for the most punctual observance of this regula- 
tion, as also the only object to which everything is directed, and that 
is, the advancement and instruction of all the Children. 

The immediate fiscal and Judge, who at the same time, shall 
observe the conduct of the Director and apply to him the punish- 
ment which he may merit according to his faults, shall be the Illus- 
trious Ayuntamiento, from whose sentence appeal can be made only 
to the Citizen Chief of this Department. 

The only punishments which can be applied to the Director 
either for the infraction of any article of this regulation, or for 
any other grave fault, relative to his ministry, of which he may be 
convicted, shall be: 1st, a discount from the salary of the next- 
month, and, 2nd, the absolute deprivation of his office, a previous 
succinct report to this effect having been approved by the Citizen 
Chief of this Department. 

The pecuniary penalty mentioned in the preceding article shall 
not be less than one dollar, nor exceed six. 

This ordinance, before being signed by the Illustrious Ayunta- 
mwnto, shall be laid before the Teacher of the School, in order 
that, within the limit of three days, having examined the whole 
in detail, he may be able to make criticisms which occur to him, 
which shall either be answered, if they are not thought reasonable, 
or shall be made use of by addition to or amendment of, any of 
the rules prescribed by the commission empowered for this purpose. 

Refugio de la Garza 1 Juan Martin de Beramendi 

Jose Maria Balmaceda. 

ir The handwriting of the Ordinance, as well as that of the following 
address, seems to be that 01 Refugio de la Garza. 



62 Texas, Historical Association Quarterly. 

Being carefully informed of what is contained in the foregoing 
Ordinance, which is to serve for the internal Government of the 
PudHc primary School of this City, which is under my control, 
and not having any reflection to make, I am in agreement with 
whatever is prescribed in it and will take care that it be put in prac- 
tice and properly complied with. 

Jose Anto. Gama y Fonseca. 
San Fernando de Bexar, 

13 of Mch., 1828. 

The foregoing Ordinance having been put under general discus- 
sion, it has been approved in its entirety by this Ayuntamiento. 
Capitular Hall of San Fernando de Bejar, 
13 of March, 1828. 
Bamon Musquiz Juan Martin de Beramendi 

Jose Maria de la Garza Manul. Flores 

Juan Angl. Seguin Victoriano Zepeda, 

Sec'y ad Interim. 

The education of youth has always been one of the most import- 
ant bases for the felicity of Peoples, and the prosperity of their 
Government. The Mexican, who, unfortunately, groaned under 
the despotic and savage sway of the ambitious sons of Iberia, has 
never occupied himself in perfecting this most important institu- 
tion, which would already have placed him on a level with the 
most cultured nations. The corrupt Government at Madrid only 
cared to suck up, by whatever means within its reach, the precious 
resources of the Americas, and studiously and craftily to retard 
the growth of enlightenment. Nothing, in truth, was more natural 
than this iniquitous behavior, since the first, increasing its riches, 
satisfied all the desires of its vain and haughty natural caprice ; and 
the second secured it in the domination of the richest and most pro- 
ductive of its evil-acquired patrimonies, blinding us to the import- 
ant knowledge of our Native rights. 

Nevertheless, the natural empire of the reason, which some day 
comes to prevail, and the characteristic qualities of all the children 
of this soil, in union with other joint causes, broke finally the 
ominous chain which bound us, elevating us to the rank of free 
men, independent of any other. 

In spite of this, and of the paternal beneficent institutions of 



Educational Efforts in San Fernando. 63 

our Present Government, to which belongs the establishment of 
primary Schools, the spirit of discord which still endures amongst 
us has impeded it from occupying itself with this, as with other 
matters that undoubtedly make for the aggrandizement of the 
Nation, all its efforts being employed in assuring our internal and 
external tranquillity, which is doubtless the corner stone of the 
social edifice. 

In spite of all, and in virtue of the ardent desires of the towns, 
there are already seen in most of them educational establishments 
for the youth who will form the future generation, which will come 
to secure completely Mexican Liberties ; and among these, although 
one of the most distant from the center, of the least populous, of 
the poorest in moneyed citizens, and finally, vexed by the terrifying 
hostilities which it has suffered from the savages through long 

periods of time, 1 has just made a heroic and extraordinary 

effort, stirred up by several of its citizens, and by that worthy citi- 
zen, General Anastacio Bustamente, to make a collection amongst 
all its citizens, amounting to six hundred dollars annually and 
lasting for four years, in order to carry to accomplishment the 
desire which in all time it has had for the education of its youth. 

Yes, unfortunate Be jar, truly worthy of a better fate, you are 
the one which has just given so heroic a testimony of beneficence in 
spite of your notorious poverty; with difficulty do you commence 
to lift yourself from the abject state into which you had sunk, 
thanks to the presence of that philanthropic General and the aid 
of the Supreme Federal Government. 

Be filled, then, citizens of Bejar, with the ineffable satisfaction 
which is produced by the important services directed to the good 
of your children, of society in general, and of the adored Country 
to which we belong, awaiting the glorious day in which you may 
either experience the fruit of your sacrifices for this pious estab- 
lishment, or in which your ashes may receive a new being, through 
the eulogies which, without doubt, your posterity will lavish upon 
you. 

J The name B§jar was omitted here in the MS. 



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